GWEC launches Wind Action Plan to break the cycle of energy crises

12 March, Lisbon | The Global Wind Energy Council has today launched a Wind Action Plan setting out emergency policy measures for governments to accelerate wind energy deployment and strengthen their energy resilience.

GWEC's action plan calls on countries to immediately review their exposure to future fossil fuel price shocks in the wake of continued oil and gas market volatility sparked by conflict in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

As consumers and businesses face the prospect of another ‘hammer blow’ to household bills and balance sheets, GWEC is asking governments to respond by implementing policy packages to scale the deployment of homegrown and affordable wind energy at unprecedented speed.

GWEC is calling for governments to fast-track ‘shovel-ready’ wind projects for construction to diversify power sources and strengthen energy security, in the same way that green recovery plans were announced after the Covid-19 pandemic and invasion of Ukraine.

“We need to break the cycle of energy crises. The unfolding tragedy in the Middle East and its impact on surging oil and gas prices is just the latest reminder of our vulnerability to volatile fossil fuels. We simply can’t go on like this.”

“Economies built around limitless, homegrown wind and renewable energy benefit from long-term, low-cost price certainty. The Wind Action Plan we have set out today provides a clear pathway for countries to accelerate the deployment of ready-to-build wind projects and ensure national economies are much better insulated from future crises linked to fossil fuels.”

 

Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC

GWEC’s Wind Action Plan urges fast-tracking permitting, removing grid and storage bottlenecks, mobilising financing, greater electrification and scaling supply chains. The plan is aligned with a Renewables Action Plan launched in tandem by the Global Renewables Alliance (GRA), a coalition co-founded by GWEC representing the wider renewables sector.

GWEC’s Wind Action Plan: Five Areas:

• Fast-track emergency permitting: Accelerate regulatory approvals by urgently streamlining permitting and consenting procedures for wind, renewables and storage projects to deliver a major expansion of capacity within the next 36 months.
• Address grid and storage blockers: Expand, modernise and optimise electricity grids and storage systems to integrate new wind capacity. Significantly shorten lengthy grid connection queues and accelerate grid access by guaranteeing priority dispatch for wind and other renewables.
• Mobilise financing now: Unlock and de-risk public and private investment for wind and other renewable energy projects and associated infrastructure, by introducing preferential interest rates and financing, decreasing financial institution lending limits, creating renewable lending windows, and redirecting capital away from carbon intensive industries.
• Move swiftly to electrification: Introduce and implement national strategies to reduce fossil fuel dependence by accelerating end-use electrification and system integration across transport, heating and industry, supported by flexibility markets, demand response and short- and long-duration energy storage.
• Scale up supply chains: Develop robust industrial strategies for supply chain development with clear milestones to expand renewable, grid and storage deployment and stockpiling. Create clear demand signals and offtake frameworks, increase pipeline visibility, and generate long-term revenue certainty, to promote necessary investments in critical manufacturing and labour force capacity.

Read the Wind Action Plan in full including specific priority policy actions to accelerate wind power on our Wind Energy Security Tracker webpage.